New power outage schedules are in effect throughout Ukraine: the main changes you need to know about

The Ministry of Energy has updated its instructions on power outage schedules. The new rules came into force on December 16, 2024. OBOZ.UA has collected the key changes that are relevant for the whole of Ukraine.

What are subgroups of power outages and why are they needed?

• The rule of six queues in each region was in effect before. But in fact, now there are 12 groups in each region – 6 equal queues, each of which has 2 more sub-queues.
• Each subgroup must be disconnected for at least 12.5% of total consumption (according to the measurements of the last regime day).
• The start and end times of the outages between the subgroups will be distributed in 30-minute increments (currently, mostly 1 hour).
• Such a system is expected to prevent load fluctuations during the simultaneous transition from one queue (or sub-queue) to another.
• There are also cases when the introduction of one queue for all regions is not enough, while two queues are too many. This problem should also be solved by creating subgroups so that more people can have electricity at the same time.

What else should you know about the new blackout system?

• Hourly blackouts still do not apply to critical facilities. Their lists are determined by local authorities (regional administrations and the Kyiv City Administration).
• The schedules will be put into effect in the event of a power shortage in the power system that cannot be covered by the country's entire distributed generation.
• The Ministry of Energy is confident that the new approach will allow fewer consumers to be disconnected when applying hourly schedules.
• If local accidents occur or the enemy damages power lines, the schedules for a particular region will change, so Ukrainians should still follow all changes on the official resources of their regional power company.

How the new power outage schedule works: the case of Kyiv

• The six groups were divided into 12 (with subgroups), and you can find out about your new group on the DTEK Kyiv Electricity Networks website or via the chatbot.
• The current schedule is updated daily – from today to tomorrow. For example, this is how the schedule of outages for December 16 looks like:

• The schedule of possible outages for the week has become very exemplary. It now contains information about the hours when the power will definitely be on in the absence of accidents ("white zones"), while the rest of the time is marked as a "gray zone" in which outages are possible:

As OBOZ.UA reported earlier, in case of severe frosts, Ukraine may tighten the blackout schedule. Experts believe that if the average daily temperature is -10°C, longer blackouts may be introduced – up to 10-12 hours a day.

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